Minority Achievers Drawn To U. Of I.

Recruiting Effort Shows Success

September 23, 1985|By Casey Banas, Education writer.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has used aggressive recruiting to more than double its enrollment this year of academically superior black and Hispanic students identified in two national recognition programs, according to university President Stanley Ikenberry.

The state`s brightest minority students are courted by top colleges and universities across the nation with lucrative scholarship offers, and hundreds choose out-of-state campuses. Ikenberry directed last year that the U. of I. mount an effort to stem the exodus of top black and Hispanic students to other states.

Last year the university targeted 375 Illinois semifinalists in the National Achievement Scholarship Program, a merit recognition program for top black high school graduates, and the National Hispanic Scholar Award Program, a similar program for Hispanic students.

Ikenberry wrote to each student and offered admission to either the Urbana-Champaign or Chicago campus and a need-based scholarship package that would pay the entire cost of a college education. The recruiting campaign included follow-up letters by university staff members, phone calls and invitations to visit the campuses.

``These other kinds of personal appeals were certainly not to pressure them unduly to come to the University of Illinois if that was not their inclination,`` Ikenberry said. ``But we wanted to make crystal clear that we would hope they would consider us.``

This fall, 88 students in the academically elite group of blacks and Hispanics enrolled at the Urbana-Champaign campus, more than double the 35 who enrolled a year ago. Of the 88, 61 are black, up from 31 last year, and 27 are Hispanic, up from 4 last year.

Figures from the Chicago campus are not yet available because the academic year lags a month behind that of the Urbana-Champaign campus. But Ikenberry hopes that the number of top minority students at the Chicago campus also will be double last year`s figure.

The top minority students enrolled at the Urbana-Champaign campus have an average score of 26 on the American College Test, which is used as one criterion for college admission. That is considered a superior academic score by test officials.